Guwahati: As Guwahati gears up to celebrate Durga Puja with fervour after a two-year Covid -19 lull, the situation continues to remain gloomy for the idol-makers of the city due to budget cuts by puja committees.

Idol makers said orders have reduced to a great extent this year compared to pre-Covid times and most of the orders are for smaller and cheaper idols, which results in thin profit margins.

67-year-old Tapas Pal, an idol maker from city’s Pandu area said business may see no revival amid rising prices of raw materials and shortage of labourers, with several organisers having curtailed their spending.

“We faced a lot of difficulties in the last two years due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. Last year, the administration’s directive to mark the occasion with small-sized Durga idols had adversely affected our earnings,” Pal said.

He said prices of raw materials — clay, hay, wood and even costumes and jewellery — have skyrocketed post-pandemic but organising committees are not prepared to pay more.

Artisans in the potters’ colony in the western part of Guwahati are still burning the midnight oil to ensure that idols of Goddess Durga and her entourage are crafted on time and sent to various pandals.

Some of the organisers placed orders really late and “we had to make last-minute purchases, which also decreased our profit margins”, Pal’s son Kanchan said.

The father-son duo received 19 orders this year and engaged fewer ‘karigars’ than they usually did during the pre-pandemic days.

“How are we supposed to pay workers their wages when we are not sure about the earnings ourselves? After covering the cost of raw materials and paying the wages, we will be left with almost nothing,” he said.

Sporadic rainfall last month had added to our woes, he added.

32-year-old Dipika Pal, the only woman idol-maker in Guwahati said, “Traditionally, women members of the family are not engaged in idol-making but after my father died, I had to take it up to support my mother and sisters,” she said.

The last two years “almost broke the backbone of the community” and this year, too, the orders are fewer in number, she said.